Among House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s State of the Union guests are the Planned Parenthood president, active-duty transgender service members and chef Jose Andres. Andres heads a charity that began in 2010 to feed earthquake survivors in Haiti and that offered free food and coffee to furloughed workers during the partial government shutdown.
Gov. Tom Wolf’s new budget proposal requests hundreds of millions of dollars more for Pennsylvania’s schools, as well as a sprinkling of money for new voting machines and new programs to improve skills training and the state’s agricultural sector. Wolf released the $34.1 billion budget plan Tuesday to a joint session of the Legislature. Wolf is seeking authorization for $1.9 billion in new spending, or nearly 6 percent more.
Trump guests include freed drug offender, bullied student
By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — A woman freed from federal prison after President Donald Trump cut short her life sentence for drug offenses and a Delaware boy allegedly bullied because his last name is Trump headline a varied group of 13 guests who will sit with first lady Melania Trump for the State of the Union address.
Alice Marie Johnson, 63, served more than two decades of a life sentence without parole before Trump commuted her sentence last year. Johnson’s case had been championed by reality TV star Kim Kardashian West, who personally lobbied Trump in the Oval Office.
Delaware’s Brandywine School District said last year that steps had been taken to support Joshua Trump, a middle-school student who reportedly had been bullied for years because he shares the president’s last name.
Guests the White House invites to the State of the Union typically serve to help put a face on policies the president will promote in the nationally televised address.
Johnson’s case spotlights legislation Trump signed into law last year to address concerns about the criminal justice system, including giving judges more discretion in sentencing some drug offenders. Bullying prevention is a key element of an initiative Mrs. Trump named “Be Best.”
Other guests will represent Trump’s opposition to illegal immigration, his push to halt human trafficking across the U.S.-Mexico border, efforts to stem the deadly opioid addiction epidemic and his economic policies.
The remaining guests are:
— Debra Bissell, Heather Armstrong and Madison Armstrong, the daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughter, respectively, of a Reno, Nevada, couple allegedly killed in their home last month by a person illegally in the U.S.
— Matthew Charles, a Tennessee man who was among the first prisoners released under the First Step criminal justice legislation Trump signed in December.
— Grace Eline, a 9-year-old brain cancer survivor.
— Ashley Evans, a former opioid addict nearing one year and one month of sobriety who hopes to be reunited with her daughter full-time.
— Elvin Hernandez, a special agent with the Homeland Security Department’s human trafficking unit.
— Roy James, plant manager of a lumber facility in Vicksburg, Mississippi, that the White House says was reopened under provisions in Trump’s tax cut legislation.
— Timothy Matson, a Pittsburgh police officer and SWAT team member who was shot multiple times while responding to the deadly October 2018 shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue. Eleven people were killed.
— Judah Samet, a Holocaust survivor and member of the Tree of Life Synagogue.
— Tom Wibberley, father of Navy seaman Craig Wibberley, who was killed in the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen.
Johnson was convicted in 1996 on eight criminal counts related to a Memphis-based cocaine trafficking ring. Federal courts, including the Supreme Court, rejected her appeals. Her requests for clemency had been rejected by President Barack Obama, who during eight years in office commuted the sentences of hundreds of federal inmates convicted of drug crimes.
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Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap
The annual Beaver County Chamber of Commerce State of the County breakfast happened this morning at the Fez in Hopewell township. Introductory comments were offered by Beaver County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jack Manning. The meeting included addresses by the three county commissioners. County Commission Chairman Dan Camp pointed to the new casino development happening in Northern Beaver County as the key development that happened in 2018. Tony Amadio echoed Camp’s comments about the casino project, using the word “Jackpot” to describe the fortune of securing such s big project for the county. Amadio touched on the success achieved during his last term in office, with the announcement of the Shell Chemical Cracker plant coming to Beaver County happening at the beginning of the current four year segment, and the casino project just recently announced toward the latter part. Sandie Egley championed her work in helping improve the county’s finances, and implementing new procedures in the courthouse to improve efficiency. One of the big concerns discussed by all three commissioners at this morning’s meeting was the unfunded state mandate to update the county voting machines, estimated to cost around 3 million dollars. Beaver County Radio Sponored the event that was attended by around 200 people.
NATIONAL MOLDING PLANT IN HARMONY TOWNSHIP IS RELOCATING…RESULTING IN THE LOSS OF DOZENS OF JOBS. BEAVER COUNTY RADIO NEWS CORRESPONDENT SANDY GIORDANO HAS MORE. Click on ‘play’ to hear Sandy’s report…
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf will pitch the first budget proposal of his second term to lawmakers, and the Democrat can be expected to seek another big, new chunk of money for education. Wolf’s budget address to a joint legislative session is scheduled for Tuesday morning. His plan is expected to exceed $33 billion for the fiscal year starting July 1 and he’s hinted that he’ll continue to seek more from the Republican-controlled Legislature.
WEATHER FORECAST FOR TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5TH, 2019
TODAY – AREAS OF PATCHY FOG THIS MORNING. MORNING
HIGH OF 53 WITH TEMPS FALLING TO NEAR 40.
TONIGHT – CLOUDY SKIES WITH A FEW SHOWERS AFTER
MIDNIGHT. LOW – 33.
WEDNESDAY – PERIODS OF RAIN. HIGH – 54.
(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)
When Commissioner Chairman Dan Camp spoke of the fervent backlash he received from Beaver County citizens about the proposed changes by the Beaver County Transit Authority, it turns out he wasn’t exaggerating.
Dozens of County residents arrived at the BCTA headquarters on West Washington Street in Rochester on Monday night to hear in detail about the changes that are being proposed, but have not yet been put into action, by the Transit Authority. General Manager Mary Jo Morandini was the head speaker for the meeting, and she described the new plans-to-be for the routes in current use.
One of these proposed changes is on Route 11, in which the Drug & Alcohol stop will be removed and replaced with a stop at the Beaver Valley Mall, as explained by GM Morandini:
Among other proposed changes include the removal of the 6:20 and 6:45 trips on Route 3 in lieu of one 6:30 trip, and having the last Route 1 bus out of Pittsburgh leaving at 7:00pm instead of 8:00 where it currently stands.
The backlash towards the new proposals, and even Morandini herself, came early and often throughout the rest of the evening. A variety of responses came out in regards to the issues it would cause, including one who was wondering how he could leave his job in Pittsburgh if the 8:00pm bus on Route 1 was cut…
…another who felt the Drug & Alcohol stop is a populous one that needed to stay…
…and one woman who felt that the BCTA was convenient enough as it was and that the changes would be potentially inconvenient:
Others chose to heave their backlash onto Morandini, whose lack of dependency on using the BCTA buses and business-first attitude were called out on the carpet:
Those with further complaints to the BCTA can submit them up until 3:00pm on February 19th. The changes, if passed will go into effect sometime during Spring of this year.
Couple sentenced to jail for attack on Pittsburgh teacher
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A judge has sentenced a woman and her boyfriend to jail in an attack on a teacher in Pittsburgh.
Thirty-year-old Daishonta Williams and 27-year-old Vincent Beasley were both ordered Monday to serve 11½ to 23 months in jail on November guilty pleas to aggravated assault and conspiracy.
Authorities say the October 2017 assault followed an incident involving Williams’ daughter at Pittsburgh Martin Luther King PreK-8. They say Williams hurled a brick, striking the teacher in the face, and Beasley grabbed her from behind and kicked her.
Both defendants apologized in court to the teacher, who said she sustained a concussion and just returned to work two weeks ago.
Williams wept and begged to be spared jail, citing her three children, but the judge said the defendants’ actions have consequences.
Push resumes to recognize official Pennsylvania amphibian
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s Senate wants to make the slimy and unsightly Eastern hellbender the state’s official amphibian, an effort to highlight the plight of a creature whose numbers researchers say are declining because of pollution in rivers and streams.
The bill passed 48-1 on Monday, and goes to the House.
The sponsor, Sen. Gene Yaw, says members of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s student leadership council came up with the idea and Lycoming College’s Clean Water Institute helped draft a proposal.
The Senate passed a hellbender bill last year, but it died in the House, where it encountered competing legislation promoting the Wehrle’s salamander.
According to the Center for Biological Diversity, the hellbender is an aquatic salamander that can grow up to two feet long, making them the largest North American amphibian.